Locate Schools Near Greenspaces for Best Effects

Rahal, Wells, and Evan “examined the [relationship between] school greenspace . . . and a standard literacy enrichment program . . . over a one-year period for a large sample of ethnic minority (95%) elementary school children . . . attending predominantly low-income schools . . . throughout the state of California. . . . On average, reading interventions conducted in schools with greater greenspace were more efficacious in improving individual students’ reading outcomes over a one-year period than reading interventions conducted in schools with less greenspace. . . . [the] effect . . . can be translated into an average gain of 1 week of learning in reading per year per student for two hours of academic instruction delivered weekly in school environments with an additional 14% school green land area.”

Rouzbeh Rahal, Nancy Wells, and Gary Evans.  “School Greenspace Is Associated with Enhanced Benefits of Academic Interventions on Annual Reading Improvement for Children of Color in California.”  Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.101966